Meralco buying P523M worth of Transco assets

Manila Electric Co. is acquiring P523 million worth of subtransmission assets, which will allow the company to gain full control of the operation, maintenance, upgrading and expansion of these facilities.

In a statement, Meralco said the transfer of the subtransmission assets, which are owned by state-run National Transmission Corp. (Transco), would “translate to a more efficient and reliable service to (its) customers.”

According to Meralco, these subtransmission assets are being acquired in two batches.

One batch included assets that would be acquired solely by Meralco, namely the Dasma-Rosario 115-kilovolt line, Rosario Substation, Tayabas Substation and Ternate Substation. The total cost for this batch was estimated to reach P381 million.

The other batch would be acquired through a consortium among Meralco and two other distribution utilities, namely the Second Batangas Electric Cooperative (Batelec II) and First Bay Power Corp. (FBPC).

For this batch, three consortium agreements were executed on Monday among Meralco, Batelec II and FBPC; Meralco and FBPC, and Meralco and Batelec II. These groups would be paying Transco a total of P142 million for the assets.

The acquisition of these assets, which will still be subject to the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission, is mandated under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

Under the Epira, subtransmission assets will be operated and maintained by Transco until their disposal to qualified distribution utilities (DUs). These utilities will take over the responsibility of operating, maintaining, upgrading and expanding the grid assets.—Amy R. Remo